Pacific Metropolis

More on the Plaza of Nations' Future

In early 2005, the owner of the Plaza of Nations complex approached the City of Vancouver, to see if it would permit the construction of residential buildings on part of the Plaza of Nations' site.

Based on the planning department's six-month study (link to pdf) that was submitted in July 2005, City Council decided that it could not support further residential development that would reduce the site's entertainment and commercial space.

Instead, they encouraged the property owner to work with adjacent developers (ie Concord Pacific) to ensure that the Plaza of Nations would continue to serve as a commercial and entertainment centre.

In assessing the owner's request to add more residential to the site, one of the City planners' main concerns was that if residential development occurred too close to the Plaza of Nations, people would inevitably complain about noise and crowds.

More importantly, however, was the view that the Plaza of Nations complex has an important role to play within the wider sports and entertainment district, which includes BC Place and GM Place.

Planners also noted Vancouver's need for a mid-sized, covered outdoor facility that is able to support community events. They went on to stress the uniqueness of the site's location, which is one of the few waterfront gathering places in the city.

With that in mind, it'll be interesting to see whether the Plaza of Nations gets redeveloped according to the site's current zoning - with a hotel and/or entertainment complex - or whether City planners will consider the bigger picture, to include the future of BC Place and the Whitecaps Stadium in their planned review of the Northeast False Creek area.   

Why not look at building a new, mid-sized stadium in this location for both the Whitecaps and BC Lions? (Incidentally, Whitecaps owner, Greg Kerfoot, considered purchasing the Edgewater Casino, earlier in 2006. Link to article here).

At the very least, this is shaping up to be an early test of Toderian's vision for the City.

Bringing Down Another Roof

With another famous roof set to come down in Vancouver, the public will once again have the chance to contemplate the future of a second Expo legacy site - this time, the Plaza of Nations complex.

Last Thursday, the City of Vancouver put out this press release, which announced that due to age-related structural problems with the Plaza of Nations' roof, a demolition permit had been granted to the site's owner, Canadian Metropolitan Properties. It goes on to say:

The owner has committed to ensure ongoing open-air use of the outdoor performance venue. A long-term permanent strategy to rebuild or replace the performance venue will be explored as part of an anticipated review of overall plans for Northeast False Creek.

Some further reporting by CKNW has revealed that several tennants who occupy offices on the west side of the Plaza of Nations complex have been asked to vacate by this coming June.

The article adds that Canadian Metropolitan Properties is considering redevelopment, although it doesn't yet have any firm plans.

From what we know, the current zoning on the site does permit the construction of a 'family sports and entertainment complex' as well as a hotel, so it's quite possible that one of those facilities might be going in there.

There aren't any anticipated changes to the former BC Pavillion, which is currently occupied by the Edgewater Casino.

Our next post will have more info from a 2005 study that examined the Plaza of Nations' future.

Three Harbour Green

Shrouded in mystery, not much is known about Three Harbour Green, the tallest of the three 'exclusive', high-end condo buildings that are being built along the Coal Harbour waterfront.

The developer's website is still promoting the sold-out Two Harbour Green, so there's little information to go on there.

Twarog's site mentions that the new building will come in at 34 storeys (354 feet) with 95 condo units, once it's completed.

We also came across this amusing video by two local real estate brokers who, shall we say, aren't quite ready for prime time.

(It would be helpful, for example, if they actually showed more shots of the site they were talking about, rather than themselves. And what's with the jumbo-sized microphone? At least the lady isn't holding it up to her head, like a telephone).

According to these nice people, Three Harbour Green has already sold out - in about 48 hours - with its large suites going for an average of $2 million to $3 million apiece.

Residents have already occupied One Harbour Green, while Two Harbour Green is still under construction.

Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel

To check-in on how the construction work at Vancouver's Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel is coming along, you can find the building site's webcam, here.

Photo taken on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2007.

There's also an online photo gallery available on the developer's website here, which appears to be adding one new photo each month.

Convention Centre Update

Although there's not much new to report about the Convention Centre expansion project, you can always check in on their webcam, to get a sense of how construction is coming along.

Based on these grabs, it's apparent that much of the building's foundation has by now been poured, and that the frame is starting to rise on the far eastern part of the site.

For additional photos taken by the site's lead construction management company, PCL Constructors, click here.

There's also a Province article here, which has a nice close-up picture of the building site from early January.

The story mentions how the VCC has already started to book new convention business for its expanded facilities, with the US Pediatric Academic Sciences being the first group to sign up for meetings in 2010 and 2014.

Whitecaps Stadium

The Province is reporting today that the City's planning department has endorsed a report that would relocate the proposed Whitecaps Stadium to where the Seabus terminal is today.

Apparently, this move would resolve some of the main concerns about the Whitecaps' initial proposal.

The report goes to City Council on February 1st, which will subsequently determine whether the stadium proposal should 'proceed to a separate rezoning process.'

Pending Council's approval, more detailed design plans would need to be submitted and further public hearings would have to be held.

Coal Harbour Week

To kick off our look at Coal Harbour construction over the next few posts, take a look at this video from last July, via Chrispitality.com.

Although the choice of music strikes us as a little odd (perhaps a reference to the endless pile-driving?), the film provides some decent shots of the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion site, plus a short preview of the Fairmont Pacific Rim construction site.

This second, more recent video takes a look at a few other hotel-related construction projects around Vancouver, including the Shangri-La.

And for the fun of it, if you haven't seen them before, check out Chrispitality's bed jumping videos.

The Latest on Creekside Park

Not much has changed since our initial post about Creekside Park, from last year.

However, we did manage to find this new photo of the extended park, which we thought was interesting. More information, including a larger version of the picture, can be found on the City's site here.

To pick up where we last left off, it would seem that the final details for the redevelopment of Creekside Park will come to light once plans for the final Concord Pacific project, to the west of the Plaza of Nations are announced.

As per our previous post on Concord Pacific's plans for this property, all we've seen so far is the announcement that 6 buildings/1100 units are on the way, with marketing to begin in 2007.

Some Final Notes on SEFC

In taking our final look at the SEFC and Vancouver Olympic Village developments for the next little while, we've come across a few more interesting details about the project. (Click map for a larger version).

First, the Globe and Mail recently reported (subscription required) that the New York-based architect who had been hired to design portions of the Olympic Village has been dumped. It turns out, he wanted to make the SEFC site look like a 'French classical fishing village'.

Next, it's worth noting that many of the rezoning approvals for the SEFC site require developers to allocate 25% of new residential units for families.

Developers must also build to LEED Silver standard, although the Millenium Group has committed to achieving Gold standard on the Olympic Village site.

And lastly, there's some interesting information in each of the rezoning applications regarding Olympics-related security.

Should buildings on parcels 2, 3, 4 and 7 be completed prior to 2010, residents may occupy those units, although VANOC security may erect barriers, etc. to safeguard the Olympic Village.

For those properties that look directly onto the Olympic Village site - namely parcels 5 and 6, and a portion of parcel 4 - occupancy of these buildings will not be permitted until March 12th, 2010, about two weeks after the Olympic Games are finished.

Furthermore, should the building sites still be under construction during the Olympics, all buildings will have to be locked down by January 12th 2010, and construction activity will have to cease until March 12th, 2010.

For a closer look at one of the Olympic Security clauses, link to the zoning application for parcel 5 here (lind to pdf, see pages 27-29).

Postscript: Pricetags has the full Globe and Mail story here.

NY Times on Vancouver Planning

Vancouver was recently profiled in the New York Times, with a story on our 'zoning policy that worked too well.' (Link to full article here).

Besides providing a nice pic of the Pomaria and Elan developments, the article lets slip a couple interesting pieces of information.

For one, it sounds as though the City may be contemplating the relaxation of some view-cone height restrictions, in order to encourage more office space to be built downtown. And it looks as though the Bay Parkade site will be the first test of that new policy direction:

Planners are considering several options, including raising the limits on building height, offering incentives to developers, and capping residential construction.

The article goes on to say:

As part of a proposed deal with the city, Mr. Lim would be allowed to increase the residential density of his Bay Parkade site...in return for expanding the commercial component. But Mr. Lim also said he 'would like some flexibility on height'.

Aside from Mr. Lim's comments, the main thrust of the article focuses on the need for more downtown commercial development, as vacany rates for Class A office space have now fallen to 3.3%.

And finally, one other interesting bit of information: it appears that the Holborn Group is now calling their 1153 West Georgia project, 'Vancouver's Turn'.

Let's hope that they rethink their marketing on that one.